Conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh and others were quick to jump on the item. “This makes me extremely uncomfortable” Limbaugh said on April 18. “But it’s gotta be discussed because Obama’s trying to make hay out of the Romneys putting their beloved dog on the roof of the car in a kennel.”

Romney came under additional fire when it was revealed that his wife held her birthday celebration at the residence of Fred Malek. In 1959, Malek, then 22, was arrested for cruelty to animals; the charges were later dropped, as someone else confessed to the crime.